Best DAW Software In 2025 For (Both macOS & Windows)

There are several daws (digital audio workstation) software you can use to record and edit audio files. Most of them support the windows operating system, but if you are a macOS user, then you will select the specific one that’s only compatible with macOS operating system.

For audio recording, ideally, you will need at least a usb microphone and a laptop. If you want to record audio using any dynamic or condenser mic, then you will also need audio mixers, preamps, pop filters, and mic shock mount to record audios in the studio too. In short, Garageband is the best daw software for macOS & adobe audition is the best daw software for windows.

In this article, we ranked and reviewed the top DAW software to consider in 2025.

What is the Best DAW Software In 2025 ?

Here are my top picks for the best daws(digital audio workstation) software to use this year.

• Adobe Audition
• Ableton Live
• Steinberg Cubase
• Image-Line FL Studio
• BandLabs Cakewalk
• Audacity
• Presonus Studio One
• FL Studio
• Reason
• MOTU Digital Performer
• Steinberg Cubase
• Cockos Reaper
• Apple Logic Pro
• Avid Pro Tools
• Bitwig
• Renoise

I’ll start with my favorite DAW software as of  2025.

Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition is my #1 pick for the best daw software to use for pc users. It’s a complete digital audio workstation that features all unique audio recording and audio mixing tools in one package. You will get a sound panel, on clip gain adjustment, waveform scaling, Diagnostic Panel effect, and many more audio mixing features to scale your audio production with professional touch.

If you already have the adobe cloud subscription, you can use this tool for free. But if you don’t have one, then you can purchase this software individually here.

Avid Pro Tools

Avid Pro Tools is an awesome daw software to handle all your audio mixing tasks. You will get everything you want to make beats, record vocals, write songs, and audio mixing capabilities to share your voice on the world’s most popular audio & video streaming platforms.It makes music production fast & fluid, providing the GRAMMY® winning DAW toolset and plugins to record music and mix them perfectly using one tool.

Whether you are a voice artist or an expert music producer, the Avid Pro Tools get you all covered to produce extraordinary music. It’s considered one of the best free daw (digital audio workstation) software to get fabulous quality and features in one platform. With the upgrade version, you can easily organize tracks and heighten your productivity level to record & produce awesome music. However, you can apply a midi editor to fly your imagination to the next level. You cannot compare any daw software with the avid pro tools based on the productivity level of seamless audio editing. It features 115 different plugins, cloud collaboration, and supports 5gb excellent quality audio.

Ableton Live

Ableton Live is an advanced daw software for electronic dance music producers of all genres compatible with both macOS and windows. You can easily add multi-tracks and mix them by adding different sounds.

The ableton live 11 suite package costs $749, and the live 11 standard package costs $449 with all advanced features, including virtual voice instruments, effects, and 60GB of additional audio content in the form of loops, samples, and sampled instruments. You will also use the live programming environment for creating impossible instrumental sounds and natural law-defying effects from scratch.

Presonus Studio One

Studio One 5 is the latest daw software from PreSonus. Relatively, its a newer digital audio workstation software on the market. This tool excels in the arrangement and composition of audio tracks with the ability to turn MIDI data into sheet notation. If you are a creative person looking for a perfect daw software to produce results, the PreSonus studio one is the best tool to consider in 2022. The standard license of PreSonus studio one 5 costs $399/year.

 

REAPER

REAPER is a powerful daw (digital audio workstation )software with any engineering compromises. This tool has no track types meaning when you create a track, you can do anything you need to do to make track arrangements simple. You can sign up for its standard license, which costs $60.

If you have little experience on audio editing, you can simply press the record button to get started and gain exposure to other features.For advanced audio editors, you can take all the advantages of the advanced routing matrix or use ReaScript to program anything on this software. You can get started with a free trial by visiting this link.

 

 

Audacity

Initially released in 2009, Audacity is a free daw software to use for recording and mixing audio tracks in 2022. You can use this tool on both Windows and macOS operating systems. However, it doesn’t support MIDI, meaning using virtual instruments is not possible. Only if you are looking for a platform to use to record podcasts or vocals, Audacity is the best free platform to go with this year.

 

Apple Logic Pro

Are you a macOS user? Apple logic pro x is the best audio recording, editing, and mixing software to use on your MacBook. It’s a paid product (costs $199/year) with an advanced, user-friendly UI interface that helps you to handle all your music-related tasks. If you already used the Garageband free software,then upgrading to apple logic pro x is the best decision to make in 2025.

Apple added lots of impressive features to this tool to make it the #1 audio production tool in the world.at $199, you can use this tool for 1 year to handle your audio production-related task and keep the peace of your head

 Final Thoughts

In summary , a DAW software allows  you the audio mixing capability you want. Each of these daw software comes up with its capabilities & features, some of them are free, but if you want advanced capabilities with no audio jargon, you should get a paid one.

Whether you are mixing and recording audio in the home studio or any professional studio environment, the best daw software has made everything easy and accessible for you.

If you are looking to record music better, edit music or mix music, a good quality daw software helps you to do that. Here are my final recommendations for the best daw software to use this year.

• macOS:GarageBand or logic pro x
• Windows: adobe audition or audacity.